Moderator Application
Personal Information
Byond ID? Clairion
CM Character? Karla 'Knees' Blessig
Are you 16 or older? Yes
Timezone CET (aka GMT +1)
On average, how many hours are you available per week to moderate? 7-15
Qualifications
Do you have any previous experience in being staff (not just SS13)? I do not have any experience being online staff.
Do you play any servers aside from CM-SS13? I do not. (at least not regularly, maybe one round if someone convinces me to play on another server with them)
Provide links to any previous Colonial Marines applications that you've made:
Are you currently a staff member elsewhere (not just SS13)? If so, where? No I am not.
Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on Colonial Marines? No i have not been.
Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on ANY server? If so, which server, when, and what for? No I have not been.
Are you familiar with the chat program Discord (its use is required)? Yes
Communication is a vital part of being a Moderator. Are you willing to actively do so with the team? I am.
Common Staff Situations
A player randomly shoots someone at round start and MPs have detained him. Considering the MPs caught them that's a good start to a possible IC solution and that's great. Still, it is worth investigating and asking the player in question why he shot someone as well as ask the person show about the situation.
If there was a RP reason i would remind them of our escalation rules and possibly note them for it.
If it was truly random and escalation nor RP was followed its best to remind them of our rules and a note/ban depending on history.
A player ahelps that a predator has violated the honor code when killing him, what should you do? A predator violating the honor code is a WL issue. I would tell the player to read up on the predator honor code and encourage them to make a player report, if they feel like the predator violated the honor code.
You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost at roundstart. I would notify any SEA if they are available. If not I would ask the mentors if any of them would like to join as SEA to help them out. If neither of these options are available for whatever reason I would try to help them out myself. This could take the shape of me joining as SEA myself, if I was observing the round, or possibly messaging the player about our quickstart guide and rules while trying to answer any follow-up questions.
A player is being very rude to you in adminhelps, calling you names and arguing everything you say. He is requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member. Well I would ask the player to calm down of course and inform them that if they are unsatisfied with my handling of their issue they are free to staff report me or take it up with management.
I would also (especially as a new staff member) ask the other staff if I'm being stupid/stubborn/impatient with a player and take their advice to heart.
HOWEVER, it is still unacceptable to be toxic towards staff. I would tell the player to calm down and possibly apply a note/ban for toxic behaviour towards staff depending on if they do calm down, how toxic they are being as well as history.
A player ahelps that a marine is named 'John Doe', how do you deal with this? I would approach the player named 'John Doe' to see if they are aware of our rules, especially considering marine naming. Regardless I would tell them that names like 'John Doe' break our rules for naming. I would tell them that I could rename them to a more suitable name if they want to keep playing. And that they could hop into cryo to leave the round and fix their name at a later date, if they would rather do that.
I would also tell them that they should change it in their setup character and possibly help them out if they don't quite know how to change stuff like that.
I would prefer not to apply a note for this considering this is probably just a new player unaware of our rules but if the player is being uncooperative or has a history of unacceptable names I would.
You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green and there has been no threat to the ship in the round at this point. In my opinion a small breach in SOP seems more like a IC issue than something staff should try to enforce and should be handled by MPs instead.
It is still something to keep in mind and possibly check up on for possible roundstart shenanigans or self antagging.
A Marine ahelps that they were killed by a survivor. It is early round, the Marines have just landed, and the survivor claims that they were outright hostile to all Marines from the get-go and openly stated their intentions. How do you deal with this? Right, as of the current rules hostile survivors aren't allowed. This means that it is simply not allowed to be outright hostile towards marines as survivor.
It is still a case worth investigating for possible proper escalation and RP reasons for the killing. Think for example marines trying to force a survivor to leave a location that escalates into a fistfight, knives drawn, gunfight.
Still it is important to let the survivor know that being hostile towards marines from the get-go is simply not allowed.
I would apply note/ban to the survivor as required, taking circumstances into consideration. And aheal the marine shot if there wasn't proper escalation or RP concerning the shooting.
You receive an ahelp from a player stating that an MP has locked them up in permanent confinement for running into Requisitions and taking an attachment that was laying around. The way the player states it this seems like a gross breach of ML by the MP that should be resolved.
I would ask who the MP was that arrested the player and ask that MP why he decided to place the player in permanent confinement.
Of course this situation is subject to circumstances but for the sake of argument lets say this was a MP who did unlawfully put the player in question in permabrig for picking up a attachment in req.
I would tell the MP that thats not the way Marine Law works, that as MP he is required to properly follow Marine Law and tell them to please read up on marine law again, linking them our wiki page on it.
I would apply a note/ban depending on history with fucking up as MP.
As for the player currently stuck in permabrig for all the wrong reasons this of course does not help him so I would ask the arresting MP to release them from permabrig and properly process them. (Tell them to keep time served in mind and possibly just ignore the crime or NJP it)
If this is not something that can be achieved for whatever reason, for example the MP in question recieving a ban, I would either ask another part of the MP force/CO/Synth/SEA to properly process/release the player (the non MP people getting involved if there is no other MP staff) or possibly send a Provost Marshall/Internal affairs agent to solve the issue. (If mods can even do that. I don't know if they can or not)
The round is stagnating. There are 30 marines and 4 aliens. The marines won't leave the ship, and the aliens won't attack. What would you do, to "encourage" the sides to engage each other? It is of course wise to take a look at if for example marines are looking at a redeployment and keep something like that in mind but lets say that isn't the case.
I would probably tell the xenos via QM something along the lines of "The puny tallhosts fear you and hide in their metal hive. Take their bird and kill them all!" followed by a XOOC that informs the xenos that they will be getting hive surge and a guaranteed win if they take the DS up to the Almayer regardless of the outcome on the Almayer.
This is a best case scenario of course and it is totally possible that queen still refuses or xenos refuse to listen to the queen.
In this case it would become a tricky scenario.
If xenos are waiting for caps to burst I would inform them, via XOOC, that they will get many more larvas via the hive surge if they simply build a spawn pool on their dropship and go up.
This might not be enough and I would either encourage queen to hand out banishments or to simply leave xenos that refuse to come with her OR, in the case of the queen refusing to go up, tell the queen that for the good of the round I would need her to go up and if she isn't willing to do that I would ask them to give up the queen role so someone who is wiling to do that could take their place and possibly swap places with the xeno that replaces them.
If the queen refusing to go up is simply refusing to budge and/or being excessively toxic to me about it I would apply a note to them concerning this behavior.
(I'm sorry for giving such a long answer to this question but since this has led to conflict in the past I wanted to give a proper answer instead of just taking a cop out answer where I assume all players will cooperate)
You are playing as a medic, and another medic overdoses all your patients and prevent marines from being revived. It seems like it may be on purpose. How do you deal with this situation? Considering I am involved in this situation I simply cannot take any staff action.
I would take action as a Player, however NOT as staff.
I would ask them to stop ODing my patients. And if they don't seem to be getting it try to help them out and teach.
If they aren't accepting my help and if I am pretty sure that they are doing this on purpose and griefing I would ahelp the issue and let another staff member handle it.
If I am the only staff member online right now I wouldn't know what to do besides ask for another staff member to come online and resolve it. I would like to learn how to deal with a situation like this however if I were to be accepted as mod.
The round ends, a Marine starts shooting a hostile CLF member and the CLF member ahelps about being killed after the round ended. I would tell the CLF member that its sucky to die at the end of the round when you are expecting to be left alone. However combat between hostile factions is allowed after round end. So a marine shooting a CLF member would be allowed after round end and would not be considered EORG. If it was another CLF member shooting them it would be another story entirely but a marine shooting a CLF member after round end is fine.
A Marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start. You receive an ahelp from one of the victims. This seems like a classic case of roundstart shenanigans.
I would tell the player who is doing this to knock it off. If they have a (recent) history of doing stuff like this and/or are unwilling to stop doing this I would apply a ban/note.
You receive an ahelp from a Marine saying that he was killed by another Marine. When you ask the murderer why, he said it was because the other Marine had punched him. Right, this is a case that requires investigation of course. It would be wise to ask both the players for their side of the story and investigate the case to see what really happened.
If this was a case of 2 marines getting into a fight after getting angry with each other with proper escalation rules being followed I would tell the player that was killed that while this is a sucky situation it does follow our rules around when its allowed to shoot other players.
If the player that shot the other marine proceeds to try and make sure the other marine doesnt get revived by for example dragging their body away or trying to block medics from reviving that might fall into either the griefing rule or the "Dont be a dick" ruling. And personally I feel like that would be enough grounds for intervention in the situation.
I wouldn't know for certain how to handle that situation currently. But I think that after some tmod training and being made aware about staff policy on that sort of thing I would be able to pass proper judgement over that situation.
If there was NOT proper escalation but simply a marine shooting another marine after a accidental punch or RP punch in frustration followed by a magdump that seems like a rulebreak. I would tell the player about our rules regarding escalation and apply a note/ban taking the situation and note history into account and aheal the player that got killed.
You find out that there is an improper mutiny occuring. The mutineers are rallying together and preparing to storm the CIC. How would you attempt to resolve this situation? I would message/LOOC players participating in the mutiny that if they want to mutiny they are required to ahelp to ask for permission for a mutiny. If they ignore this it seems fair to put out a MOOC about the mutiny being unauthorized and asking members to stand down and ahelp if they wish to mutiny.
If they still keep going and try to breach CIC a group asleep would be prudent and warning/noting/banning people involved. (depending on circumstances like note history and such)
There are minor racist comments going on IC. 9 of the 10 people are laughing and RPing but one player gets offended and Adminhelps about it. Someone ahelping something like this means its wise to take a look at what is being said and done by the players involved.
If this is indeed minor IC racist comments, like saying how all americans are fat and all russians are drunks, I don't see any reason to note the players for it but I would still tell them in either LOOC or private messages to try and tone it down a bit and keep other players in mind.
If they continue or if any slurs or other more major racist remarks are dropped that is simply not acceptable. I would tell the offending players to knock it off and note/ban depending on context, history and severity.
A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off. Killed marines should be ahealed and Relevant Ckey should be looked at for note history and possible alt accounts. Almost certainly apply a short ban or more depending on history.
As much as this could be a griefer intentionally going after marines to ruin their day it could just as well be a new and confused player fucking up and logging off in panic. That's the reason I wouldn't reach for the perma/IP ban right away.
You see a player playing a Xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines straight from the Xeno hive the second they burst and die. I would ask the player why they decided to run off as a larva and see if this is a accident, new player or if this is someone trying to grief the xeno side.
Depending on how genuine they are and note history apply note/ban.
Either way I would explain to the player that a larva should try to stay in a safe location as to not get shot.
You see a Xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat, as well as insulting the Queen. Message the player and inform them of our rules on our RP standards. Tell them to please stop doing it and, depending on if they continue/context/hostility/genuineness, either keep it as a verbal warning, note or ban. (keeping note history in mind of course)
A Xeno player calls the shuttle a "dropship". A different Xeno player ahelps that it's low role play to call it a "dropship". I would answer the ahelp by telling the player that is ahelping that, although not HRP in the slightest, its fine to call the dropship by the name marines call it. Xenos are allowed to call stuff by the name marines use so that they can be clear in what they mean.
Its a plus to for example call a sentry an autospitter but not a must.
A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet. You receive an ahelp from a marine regarding this. I would inform the player that even though marines expect hostile contact planetside they do not know that there will be xenos planetside. They should, especially as command staff, be acting as if they dont know whats down there. (hell sometimes there is a event and there arent even any xenos planetside) I would also remind them to read our rules regarding RP standards again and apply a note concerning the LRP behavior.
You find a Marine killing another Marine on the EVAC Pod to take the last spot and claims it was RP as he was saving himself. There are two other marines in the pod along with him. Currently this exact situation is allowed as per the exceptions to the escalations rule so no action would be required apart from possibly informing the killed player that was killed if they ahelp about it that it is an exception to the escalation rule.
But to keep to the spirit of the question lets say this situation had not been ruled on before.
It is a complex situation indeed. To me it depends on the circumstances.
If the marine that killed another marine to enter the pod tried other options first like, disarming and/or threatening the other marine, I might be inclined to consider it valid to qualify for exemption to the escalation rules since a similar form of escalation of force was followed with disarming and threats.
If however this marine looked at a pod filled with 3 marines wordlessly gunned one of them down and stepped inside to escape that would not seem ok to me. While there could be an argument made that this is a RP kill, to me, RP does not seem like a valid excuse for griefing another player like this especially when there was barely any RP involved besides their characters internal motivations.
In the first situation PM the player why they shot the other player, of course, and if they seem genuine in their response as well as actions I would simply tell them that they should watch out with stuff like this since they are toeing the line of what is acceptable to do in RP. And I would tell them to think of how sucky it can be to be on the receiving end of a situation like this. It is hard to decide if I should note this player for something like this and I would need to learn more about staffwide policy regarding situations like that before making a proper judgement. For now if I was to go with my gut depending on how understanding/sorry the player is I might let it slide with no note and just this verbal warning.
In the second situation I would PM the player asking why he shot the other player. If the explanation was that its RP ("Its what my character would do") I would heavily warn the player and tell them that doing something like this is borderline griefing. I would also apply a note about the situation and possibly more depending on previous notes. While banning is debatable since it could be considered straight up griefing. I can understand that this was probably a snap decision with no ill intentions towards the other player so a ban wouldn't seem right if their notes aren't bad.
A player insults you after you warn them for a minor issue and begins ranting in LOOC or dchat about staff and mentions you specifically, referring to you as an 'idiot' and a 'retard'. I would confront the player about it telling them that if they have a serious issue with how I warned them they are free to take it to the forums in the form of a staff report. I would also inform the player that I understand that they might be upset but that being angry about it in chat wont get anyone anywhere and to please calm down a bit. If they keep it up even after telling them multiple times to knock it off I would apply a note/short ban concerning toxic behavior, keeping note history and context in mind.
A player ahelps saying he was hugged by a Xeno when he was ssd, and wants the larva be removed from him via admin powers. How do you handle the ahelp? I would tell the player that it sucks a lot to be hugged/capped while SSD but it is still a valid hug/capture so there is nothing I can do about it. I would advise them to try and go SSD somewhere safe or cryo whenever possible next time. The internet gods are fickle and we are all sometimes cursed with a bad connection at a bad time.
You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforce a rule. I would give the other staff member my opinion on the matter notify, and ask for some advice from, a senior member of staff.
Two staff are arguing in msay if an ahelp is breaking a rule. Because the staff who took the ahelp thinks the player broke a rule, they ban the player based on their interpretation of the rules, with others thinking the person was fine. What would you do? This seems like a internal staff dispute. I would notify management about it.
Why would you like to become a moderator? I want to help out CM since its a community I care about and that I can help to make better.
To me the mass reminders of the possibility to join the mod team are an indicator that it might be time to step up and help make CM a better place. (Yes your mod propaganda in the mentor channel worked on me)
In your opinion, what is the most important quality for a moderator? While I would like to put Patience first I feel the most important quality for any sort of staff anywhere is Understanding.
Most people are here to have fun and don't have any evil intentions. Giving people the benefit of the doubt is in my opinion almost always the correct choice. Good people make mistakes and that should always be taken into account.
Anything else you Besides that I like cats I have nothing to add.